Build a Better Agency Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 25: How to Deal with Stale Employees, with Drew McLellan. Mar 28, 2016

Show notes

Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. He has also owned and operated his own agency over the last 20-years. And all through the year, he straddles the fence of working in his agency and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies in a variety of ways.

AMI works with agency owners:

By leading agency owner peer groups
Offers workshops for owners and their leadership teams
Offers AE bootcamps
Conducts individual agency owner coaching
Does on site consulting.

Because he works with a lot of agencies every year -- he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog "One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read."

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Stale employees: how to recognize them and why they're holding your agency back
Can these employees be saved? It's a firm maybe.
How to have the necessary conversation with stale employees -- you owe them honesty
The kinds of goals to set to see measurable change and growth before determining their place inside your agency
The costs to you as an agency owner for working with stale employees to up their game
How to recognize if you really do have to let the employee go
How to make a decision while realizing that you aren't the only person it affects

Ways to contact Drew McLellan:

Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 24: Hiring for Keeps, with Art Boulay. Mar 21, 2016

Show notes

Art Boulay is the owner of Strategic Talent Management and offers common sense solutions for hiring better employees and making current employees stronger. Art has partnered with AMI for years and has created (through testing A players) profiles for the ideal candidates for most agency specific positions.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Assessment tools for hiring the right employee lead to more objective and effective hiring
How Art's tools can assess agencies, what makes them unique, and how that will help to find the right future employees
From hire to retire: what employers and employees should do to ensure that employees don't leave right away
How to use assessments to counteract biases that we bring to the table during the hiring process
Why asking specific types of questions and having at least two people conducting an interview will reveal what you actually need to know about interviewees
Tips for making ads as attractive as possible to the people you want to hire and unappealing to people you don't even want to interview
Why age is not an indicator of knowledge and skill: hire leaders, not experience

Ways to Contact Art Boulay:

Website: www.strategictalentmgmt.com

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 23: How To Create Content That Matters, with Ann Handley. Mar 14, 2016

Show notes

Ann Handley speaks and writes about how you can rethink the way your business markets. Cited in Forbes as the most influential woman in Social Media and recognized by ForbesWoman as one of the top 20 women bloggers, Ann Handley is the Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs, a training and education company with the largest community of marketers in its category. Her book, "Everybody Writes: Your Go-to Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content," is a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

She is a monthly columnist for Entrepreneur magazine, a member of the LinkedIn Influencer program, and co-author of the best-selling book on content marketing, "Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, eBooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business." She currently has 290,000 followers on Twitter and writes about content, marketing, and life at AnnHandley.com.

A pioneer in digital marketing, Ann is the co-founder of ClickZ.com, which was one of the first sources of interactive marketing news and commentary. She started her career as a business journalist and editor.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

How agencies can educate their clients
The MarketingProfs B2B Forum
Strategies for working on better content instead of lots of content
Why you need to focus on writing during the hiring process and throughout your agency's work
Resources for editing whether you have the budget for a human editor or not
Why you need to find writers with an audience-centric point of view (and the pros and cons of hiring journalists)
Tips for creating spaces for creating your best writing

Ways to Contact Ann Handley:

Website: www.annhandley.com
Twitter: @annhandley
Twitter: @marketingprofs
Company website: www.marketingprofs.com
B2B Marketing Forum: mpb2b.marketingprofs.com

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 22: Defining your agency, with Jami Oetting. Mar 07, 2016

Show notes

Jami Oetting is the editor of Hubspot's Agency Post, which is a blog for advertising and marketing agency professionals. She led the launch of the publication in 2011 and its growth before Hubspot acquired it in 2013. Hubspot works with about 2,500 agency partners and about 15,000 customers worldwide. Now, Jami's blog is one of the largest blogs for agency professionals. It offers incredible content to help agency leaders grow their business.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

How agencies can and should be getting clients now that we're not bound by geography
Why getting business through referrals is still viable -- but why the source of those referrals is changing
Why buyers have as much if not more information than sellers and what that means for your agency
Using inbound marketing to attract the right kind of clients (and turn away the wrong ones)
Why you need to stick with inbound marketing content creation
Why you absolutely must specialize on a niche if you want to survive
Why you will struggle to attract great employees if you don't have a strong new business plan
Why you need someone on your team who is responsible for marketing your agency
How to come up with content for your blog
Why interviews are a great way to create content
What agency owners can do right now to get the ideas from this podcast into place

Ways to Contact Jami Oetting:

Website: blog.hubspot.com/agency
Email: joetting@hubspot.com
Twitter: @jamioetting

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 21: Innovation Can be Learned, with Gavin Heaton. Feb 29, 2016

Show notes

Gavin is a marketing technologist, strategist, and advisor. He is the founder of the Disruptor's Handbook, a network of entrepreneurs and innovators that help businesses innovate like startups, which Gavin calls "marketing lead innovation."

He has led new venture startups for organizations like PwC, developed digital strategy and execution for global brands on both the agency and client sides, and spent some time as an analyst in digital transformation for award-winning analyst and advisory firm, Constellation Research.

He also has extensive international experience in driving measurable outcomes via digital customer experience platforms, digital strategy, and executing innovative content driven campaigns.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Gavin's long road that ultimately led him to become a marketer
Creating value for customers by working on their problems
The evolving role of agencies
Why you have to be transparent about what it is that you do
How to get your employees to become better strategic thinkers
A "lean canvas" and creating a business out of the problem that has an idea as a solution
How to have better business conversations
Improving your business by bringing together your best advocates and harshest critics
Getting past the fear that comes with working transparently
What agencies can do today to become better at honing in on their clients' problems
Tips for fostering innovative thinking throughout your entire organization
Why you need to start thinking like a startup

Ways to Contact Gavin Heaton:

Website: www.servantofchaos.com
Handbook website: disruptorshandbook.com
Twitter: @servantofchaos

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 20: Define Your Mission, Vision, and Values, with Drew McLellan. Feb 22, 2016

Show notes

Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 21 years, he has also owned and operated his own agency. Drew's unique vantage point as being both an active agency owner and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies throughout the year, give him a unique perspective on running an agency today.

AMI works with agency owners by:

Leading agency owner peer groups
Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams
Offering AE bootcamps
Conducting individual agency owner coaching
Doing on-site consulting
Offering online courses in agency new business and account service

Because he works with those 250+ agencies every year — he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog "One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read."

What you'll learn about in this episode:

The things we say about our agencies that make them all sound the same
The terms every agency uses to describe themselves
Why you can't say you're good at everything
Finding clients that are the right fit
Understanding who you are as an agency
The benefits of defining your "why"
Remembering that hiring your agency is a huge risk for the person making that decision and what you can do to alleviate that person's fears
An example: how my agency McLellan Marketing Group defines itself

Ways to contact Drew:

Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 19: Systems Lead to Scale, with Brian Shea. Feb 15, 2016

Show notes

Brian Shea is the founder of Shea Consulting where he helps companies streamline their business development systems so they can enjoy consistent, sustainable success. Most business owners flinch at the word "systems" but in reality a system that is simple and repeatable helps free business owners to be more creative, more successful and more profitable.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Brian's background in consulting
What is keeping smaller companies from utilizing processes and systems
Why systems and processes are so crucial for scaling
Freeing up capacity through delegation
Why processes and systems can often fail inside agencies
Making sure the system or process matches the actual problem
The four-step assessment Brian uses with his clients for finding the right systems
The importance on getting clear with specific goals
Who in an agency keeps systems from succeeding
How to bring processes to agencies that pride themselves on their creativity
What happens when systems aren't put in place
How to solve the scope creep problem
What systems every agency needs to have
What you can do today to begin being more process driven

Ways to Contact Brian Shea:

Consulting website: www.sheaconsulting.biz
Blog and newsletter: www.sheaconsulting.biz/blog

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 18: Improving Productivity Through Accountability, with Adam Carroll. Feb 08, 2016

Show notes

Adam Carroll is quickly being recognized as one of the top financial educators in the country based on his core message of "you are the architect of your own life." Adam has presented all over the globe. Over 500 universities have been lucky enough to host him and he has presented some amazing TedTalks all over the world.

In 2014, Adam successfully crowdfunded a documentary on student loan debt titled Broke, Busted & Disgusted, and he raised nearly $70,000 for the film in 45 days. The mission of the film is to start a national debate about changing the way we fund college and not crippling 20 something's with mountains of debt.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Adam's documentary "Broke, Busted, & Disgusted"
Accountability and business owners: why you need accountability partners
What agencies should be doing at the tail end of the year
How Adam saves time for his family by using a Power Priority List
What to look for (and look out for) in an accountability partner
What different kinds of accountability partners you should have (hint: they shouldn't all be entrepreneurs)
Mastermind groups vs. accountability partners: do you need both? If not, which one is right for you?
The commitment required for mastermind groups and accountability partners
What you can do right now to act on the ideas from this episode

Adam Recommends:

Book: Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
Podcast: Dream, Think, Do by Mitch Matthews, episode: "Masterminds"

Adam Carroll's Websites:

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 17: Capitalize on the New Frontier of Customer Service, with Jay Baer. Feb 01, 2016

Show notes

Jay Baer is known for many things. He's the world's most retweeted digital marketer. He is also a renowned business strategist, keynote speaker, and The New York Times bestselling author of five books.

He also travels the globe helping people get and keep more customers. He's the founder of Convince & Convert, a strategy consulting firm that helps prominent companies gain and keep more customers through the smart intersection of technology, social media, and customer service. His company's media division owns the world's number one content marketing blog, the world's top marketing podcast, and many other educational resources for business owners and executives.

Jay has created five multimillion-dollar companies and is an active venture capitalist and technology advisor as well as an avid tequila collector and certified barbeque judge. His new book, Hug Your Haters, is coming out on March 1st.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

Jay's new book "Hug Your Haters" and what you need to know about the people who complain on social media
How to use this information to increase your customer advocacy
Why complaints are going to continue to go more and more public
Defining customer experience in the modern age
Why this creates enormous opportunity for B2B buyers
Why haters are your most important customers
The problem with surveys
The Honest Audit: what this is and how to put it into place
Things that agencies have to be careful of when discussing these issues with clients
Software solutions that agencies of all size can leverage
How agencies should package and price this sort of work
What agencies can do right now to get started

Ways to contact Jay Baer:

Website: www.convinceandconvert.com

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

Episode 16: Chemistry is Key in New Business, with Bob Sanders. Jan 25, 2016

Show notes

Bob Sanders is a powerhouse in the marketing industry. He has previously worked with Agency Management Group, a firm that specialized in the operations, finance, and technology consultations for multinational agencies around the world. Since then, he has become the leader of Sanders Consulting Group, a leading consulting firm specializing in helping agencies implement best practices faster and more effectively.

What you'll learn about in this episode:

How agencies can manipulate chemistry to their advantage
The four quadrants people fall into and why this is an important thing to be able to assess when pitching new business
Why you should never stop generating new business
What agencies can do to get better at closing sales
Strategies that work with big and small accounts
Why spec creative isn't something to be feared
How to play on the misperception that agencies live exciting lives
Why you need to alter your pitch based on who you're pitching to
How to be persistent to the point where potential clients are always thinking about you
What your agency needs to do today to get on the right track in terms of new business

Ways to contact Bob Sanders:

Website: www.sandersconsulting.com
Twitter: @newbusinesshawk
Email: bob@sandersconsulting.com

We're proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

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